ORLANDO - UCF volleyball travels to Tallahassee for the Seminole Classic with matchups against Florida Atlantic and No. 21 Florida State in Tully Gymnasium.
The Matchup
- Florida State will be the Knights’ first ranked opponent this season.
- The last matchup between the Knights and Owls was in 2021 when UCF came away with a 3-0 win.
- The Black and Gold’s last match against Florida State was last season in the UCF Invitational in 2022 and earned a 3-0 win.
Scouting Florida Atlantic
- The Owls are 5-2 on the season, they ended the 2023 season with a 20-13 record.
- Florida Atlantic returns 10 players from last year’s roster.
- Head coach Fernanda Nelson is in her 13th season with the Owls.
- Victoria Hensley was named to the AAC Weekly Honorable Mention as she has tallied 284 assists this season.
Scouting Florida State
- The Seminoles enter this weekend with a 5-1 record.
- Head coach Chris Poole is in his 17th season with Florida State.
- Seminoles’ kill leader Audrey Koenig has notched 70 kills so far this season.
- Loren Robertson, a transfer from Memphis, currently leads the team in assists, 124.
100 Wins
- Head coach Jenny Maurer eclipsed her 100th career win as a head coach on August 31 against Virginia Tech.
- Maurer is in her second season as head coach at UCF and had previous stops at Lehigh (2007-2010) and Bradley (2011-2015),
Road Warriors
- The Knights start their season out with three weekends on the road.
- UCF travels to Virginia, North Carolina along with two weekends on the road in Florida.
- This will be the first time since the 2017 season that the Knights play their first three weekends away from The Venue.
Double-Trouble Trio
- Three Knights recorded double-doubles last season led by Emily Wilson with eight followed by Abby Schomers with six and Avah Armour with two.
- Schomers and Armour each produced a double-double in the first match of the season against Virginia Tech.
- Schomers dished out 40 assists and 10 digs while Armour recorded 16 kills and 10 digs.
- As a setter, Schomers notched her second double-double of the season at Stetson
Year Two in the Big 12
- The Knights ended their inaugural season in the Big 12 Conference with a 17-12 overall record and 8-10 in conference play.
- This season the Knights will open league play on ESPNU at Kansas on Sept. 25.
- With the addition of four new members into the Big 12, the Knights will host Colorado for the first time since 2003, Utah (1996) and travel to Arizona and Arizona State for the first time in program history.
Ace it up
- The Knights finished out the 2023 season ranked 16 in the NCAA and No. 1 in the Big 12 for aces per set averaging 1.91.
- Emily Wilson ranked among the top 30 for aces per set at No. 28 with .46.
- Last season, the Black and Gold tallied 199 aces to rank them at No. 45 in the NCAA.
- Sasha Cohen served up three aces in her UCF debut at Virginia Tech (8/31/24).
Knight in Shining Armour
- Headlined by four matches with double digits in kills along with a career-high of 18 kills at Stetson (9/5).
- Armour recorded her first double-double this season in the first non-conference matchup (Virginia Tech 8/31).
- The Colorado native’s 18 kills at Stetson ranks in the top 20 for kills in a three-set match.
Knights In The Rankings
- UCF is currently ranked in five categories in the top 50 of the NCAA.
- 1st: 1.000 match w-l %
- 9th: 0.117 opp. hitting %
- 22nd: 0.280 hitting %
- 35th: 12.93 assists per set
- 38th: 13.79 kills per set
Familiar Face
- Head coach Jenny Maurer announced the addition of Cameron Stevens to the staff as an assistant coach.
- Stevens rejoins the Knights after spending the last two years as an assistant coach at High Point, where he helped lead the Panthers to consecutive Big South Tournament Championships.
- Before this time at High Point, Stevens was a part of three straight American Athletic Conference titles at UCF.
- Along with helping the Knights advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament twice during his first stint with the Black and Gold.
Calling All Newbies
- The Knights added a total of four newcomers to the roster during the offseason.
- Two of those are freshmen and the other two are transfers.
- The freshmen include Cam Shelton and Mya Ball.
- The transfer duo includes Alexia Kuehl (Colorado) and Sophia Kotsovolos (Gardener-Webb).
Bringing ‘Em Back
- The Knights return 10 from the previous season.
- Key returners for UCF include Abby Schomers, Avah Armour, Chloe Scheer, Emily Wilson, Katelyn Grimes, Heidi Bonde and Britt Carlson who all saw playing time last year.
Preseason Olympic Trials
- During preseason, the Knights participated in their own form of Olympic trials with various events.
- The team was broken into five countries with three players in each group.
- The five countries consisted of Papua New Guinea, Djibouti, Christmas Island, Oman and Zanzibar.
- With a total of five events, each country was scored on their performance.
- Event one consisted of each group receiving their country, making the country’s flag on a t-shirt and national anthem, which was then judged on a scale of 1-5 from three guest judges.
- The team went bowling for event No. 2 as each country competed against each other and averaged the score.
- Events three and four included another panel of judges with interpretive dancing followed by presentations from each group which consisted of information regarding their specific country and why the judges would want to live there.
- The squad wrapped up their Olympic trials at Drive Shack as they tested their golf skills for the final edge in the leaderboard.
- Final Leaderboard: 1st place: Christmas Island, 2nd place: Djibouti, 3rd place: Zanzibar, 4th place: Oman, 5th place: Papua New Guinea